Kazemat, Vossegatsedijk 3

English translation

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Description

Cluster 40. Introduction

FLANK BATTERY F5 in the main wall, as one of a series of six comparable components of the fort's close defence. Flank batteries are designed to cover the moat, projecting parts of the main wall of a fort or fortification and the terrain directly in front of it, and consist of casemates or other gun positions placed at an angle in the main wall. Their flanking fire meant that the main wall was difficult to approach. Flank batteries were particularly common in the second half of the 19th century in the German fortification system. They then possessed a facade and/or access on the escarp side (inner side) of the flanks of the main wall and were usually provided with an earth layer as cover. On the outer side there was a facade with loophole(s), largely concealed from view by the angled placement. The concept of applying flank batteries in the form of casemates built into the main wall was still relatively new in the Netherlands around 1870.

Description

FLANK BATTERY F5 on the south-east side of the Fort bij Rijnauwen, which together with five comparable or complementary flank batteries flanked the north and south sides of the fort and the caponier. The batteries, constructed of masonry in 1869-1871 and largely covered by the earthworks of the outer wall, had a powder magazine and casemates, each armed with several gun ports.

Valuation

FLANK BATTERY F5 is of general importance because of:

Cultural-historical values as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie, as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially realised from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and major-engineer Willem Offerhaus, and subsequently strengthened and improved by others over approximately 125 years.

* Military-historical values as part of a continuous military defence line between the former Zuiderzee and the Biesbosch. This consisted mainly of a coherent system of inundation fields and associated inundation means and shooting fields. This system was supplemented with various types of built or constructed (defence) works dating from different periods that served to or contributed to the closure of terrain not to be inundated or other accesses.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic architecture, which is based on the system of inundation and access defence (19th century) and on the race with strengthening offensive means (19th century).

It concerns one of a series of six examples of masonry flank batteries located on the Fort bij Rijnauwen, dating from 1869-1871.

* Ensemble value and situational values, as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other and in particular the five comparable components of the complex and/or the complementary elements.

* The component is representative (characteristic) because it clearly recognisably forms part of a fort realised in one design concept and represents the relatively new form of flanking fire from batteries placed at an angle and covered in the main wall.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because it is still clearly recognisable as a built element in the field and because in terms of structure and physical appearance the main aspects of the condition in the 1880s of this building type are preserved in it.